To the editor:
I commend Lorne’s recent article ‘The good life in Creston’. It reminded me of my journey from bigger city living in Alberta to enjoying all the benefits of small town life.
Initial exposures to Creston were through motorcycling trips with close friends. Creston was basically a transit waypoint, and we stayed at local motels on our passage to the coast. It was during one of these trips that my wife and I started to recognize the town and surrounding area offered something unique as we considered our retirement plans. We decided to visit the town through each of the four seasons, and were amazed at what we found.
We decided that Creston was to be our new home when the hustle and bustle of corporate life in Calgary was over. We purchased the old 1911 Bevan house on Northwest Boulevard in 2004 and started our renovations in 2009. By Christmas 2012, we had restored the home to its heritage grandeur and moved in. The decision to come to Creston was contagious as both of my motorcycling friends fell in love with Wynndel. One purchased land as a vacation getaway, and the other bought a house and moved there in 2007.
Fast forward to today.
My grandkids aged 7 and 10 visited us for two weeks in August. We alternated days of activity with enjoying lazy days of sunshine and ice cream cones on the front porch of the house. We canoed on the Goat River, explored the Wetlands on hiking paths, and visited Fort Steele to pan for gold. We splashed along the shores of Kootenay Lake for picnics at Lockhart Beach, visited the Farmer’s Market for hot mini-donuts, and explored the Creston library. Shopping at the Bargain Shop and the Creston Card shop were big hits, and movie night at the Tivoli was awesome!
Bottom line to this short tale is this. If you are a traveler through Creston, I encourage you to stop and take the time to experience our town. If you are considering retiring from the big city and transitioning to a slower, stress free life, this is the place to be. If you are already a resident, enjoy what we are blessed with every day.
And while access to everything a big city offers is not here, Creston and the surrounding area makes up for these shortfalls easily. As my grandkids said to me when they were about to go back to Calgary, “Papa, I can hardly wait until next summer. I love Creston!”
Truth be known, I can’t wait and I have already started planning next year’s adventures. After all, maybe one day they too will become Crestonites when they decide big city living needs to be left behind.
Bill Haughton
Creston
